1. Why
you were looking forward to going to the
ground (or not as the case may be)

This match, for me and I assume the majority
of fellow Wolves fans, was a first visit to
Glanford Park. To the best of my knowledge we
have never played a competitive game there. We
visited The Old Show Ground a couple of times
during our Division 4 period during the
early/mid 80’s, but Glanford was a first. I am
a season ticket holder at Wolves and attend
every home game bar none and away games that
are either local or “ish” (Birmingham City,
Aston Villa, West Brom, Walsall, Coventry,
Nottingham Forest, Derby, Leicester,
Sheffield(s), Barnsley, Leeds) or places that
I’ve never been or would like to revisit.
Scunthorpe fell into the second category. I’d
never been to either the town or the ground so
it had to be done !

We sold our allocation, approximately 1,500, I
believe that our numbers were boosted by many
who wanted to tick this off their list of
grounds they have been to watch The Wolves.
Myself and 4 colleagues targeted this game in
advance, booked the cheapest rail fares we
could find and it was Scunthorpe he we come. I
used to work with a chap who is a season
ticket holder at Scunthorpe and I’d arranged
to meet him for a drink or two prior to the
game so it was mobile phone on and watch out
for the text.

2. How easy was your journey/finding the
ground/car parking:

We took the 09:03 train from Birmingham New
St. to Sheffield, then Sheffield to
Scunthorpe. Of course we didn’t realise that
it was the Steel City derby that day, our
carriage was packed with Wednesday-ites
(interestingly I didn’t spot any Sheff. Utd fans on that train)
and we had a good chat with them about the day
to come. At Sheffield we caught the train out
to Scunthorpe and take note, the “stopper”
takes 1 ¼ hours to get there. At the time of
writing there are 2 trains an hour, the
quicker one runs alternately and stops only a
couple of times en-route and takes about 30
minutes. It must be said that despite the bad
press that rail travel often gets, our trains
were bang on time for both out and inbound
journeys.

You see the ground clearly on the left hand
side of the train approach from the west, it
then seems an eternity to get to Scunthorpe
station giving you the feeling that this is
going to be quite some walk. However, once you
are in the town centre, the walk is not too
bad, it is more direct and pretty much
downhill. You pass the Sainsbury’s supermarket
built on the site of The Old Show Ground which
was close to the town centre. We weren’t
relishing the walk back up the hill, but more
on that later.

3. What you did before the game pub/chippy....
home fans friendly?

The pub. The first one we came to is on Oswald
Road, The Honest Lawyer. This has a good
reputation but we didn’t visit simply because
the rest of the Wolves fans, and there were
many, that had disgorged from the train went
straight in there and we feared that getting
served would be a nightmare. We ambled on the
The Blue Bell which is the Wetherspoons a
little further up Oswald Road.

Getting served in Wetherspoons pubs is not
usually a pleasant experience, they seem to
employ two less bar staff than they actually
need and this place was no exception. However,
at 12:00 the missing couple suddenly appeared
and it was fine. There were a few home fans in
there but it was quickly filling up with
Wolves fans at each interval that a train from
Sheffield arrived. There was no hint of
trouble in there, just the way it should be.

After a few pints and advice on how to get to
the ground from the very friendly bar staff,
we thought we’d break the journey by walking
the 20 minutes or so to The Berkeley, which is
a recommended pub on the way to the ground
which is then only a further 10 minutes away.
On reaching The Berkeley, they had closed it.
According to my Scunthorpe mate, who had
joined us in The Blue Bell and was then
meeting others in The Berkeley, this is
something they do when they are visited by
large numbers of travelling supporters. I’d be
interested to know if any others out there
have experienced this.

We then walked to what seems to be a retail
park that has sprung up around the ground and
had a pint in the Frankie & Bennies
restaurant along with many other fans from
both sides. There is a pub there called the
Old Farmhouse but we were advised that it
would be five deep at the bar there so we
didn’t bother. There was some good banter with
the home fans in Frankie & Bennies, though
these establishments are not places renowned
for drinking. I would certainly not recommend
a romantic meal there immediately prior to a
Scunthorpe home game.

4. What you thought on seeing the ground,
first impressions of away end then other sides
of the ground.

First sight of the ground was from the train
and it looked exactly what it was. Compact,
neat, fairly modern but perhaps lacking the
character that traditional grounds tend to
have. All the stands appeared very similar and
exactly the same height.

The ground appears from nowhere when
approached by foot through the retail park.
The general approach seems to be via the back
of the home end then down the left hand side
to the away end that is furthest away from
you. I can’t recall a massive police or
steward presence though this probably wouldn’t
be the case when Scunthorpe are playing a
rival team.

They played “Any Old Iron” over the tannoy as
we walked down the side of the ground and I
also recall “Hi-ho Silver Lining” which is a
song we have used at Molineux for years,
strange how these songs crop up in other
places, of course Scunthorpe could have been
playing it for years as well!

The away end was small, covered, good view
with a low roof which basically meant that the
large Wolves contingent could make plenty of
noise. The turnstiles seemed rather narrow and
in fact one of our larger supporters had
difficulty squeezing through.

The game resulted in a much needed away win
(0-2) to get our play-off push back on track
following a truly dreadful December and
Christmas period. Two of our new signings
scored the goals and we finished comfortable
winners. It has to be said that though we went
in at half-time 1-up, it was barely deserved
as Scunthorpe were our equals and poor
finishing denied them at least equal footing.

We scored our 2nd early in the second half,
were dominant from that point onwards and
could have won by a greater margin.

It was a good atmosphere though I must say I
barely heard any singing from the home fans.
This may be because we had so many in such a
small end making a lot of noise. I don’t know
what it would have been like from say the
halfway line. Stewards were fine, one guy had
a half hearted at getting the crowd to sit
down but it was a hopeless task so he gave up
!

And now I have to air my one real gripe of the
day – the half-time food. We were looking
forward to a pie/pasty but they had completely
run out. All that was left were burgers.

Myself and colleague spent what was the worst
£2.50 of our lives on a cheeseburger on a
still partly frozen roll. The burger wasn’t
hot enough to melt the cheese, it was truly
appalling. Only the level of starvation that
comes with drinking several pints before the
game without food enabled us to eat it, the
taste never left us for the rest of the day.
How we didn’t come down with “Scunthorpe Gut”
I’ll never know.

6. Comment on getting away from the ground
after the game:

Easy! There was a flotilla of buses and
coaches, seemingly organised by the local
police that whisked us to Althorpe station
which is the next one down the line west bound
from Scunthorpe. From there we got the stopper
back to Sheffield and beyond. This journey was
not so bad as the combination of beer and
fresh air meant that many of us dozed off for
the best part of the journey.

Can’t comment for those who came by car and I
know a few lads that walked the hill back into
Scunthorpe for a few après match pints in the
town prior to the train from there. No trouble
as far as I am aware.

Finally, ended up at Birmingham New St. and a
couple of us headed for The Wellington on
Bennetts Hill to finish off the day prior to
trains to our final destinations. There
happened to be a real ale festival in there
and a few pints were required to attempt to
get rid of the taste of the cheeseburger
several hours later.

We were in such good spirits that we even
engaged in friendly chat and exchange of
rounds with a West Brom fan that had seen his
team draw 2-2 at home to Cardiff.